1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recording apparatus for printing images such as characters, marks, and the like on a first or a second recording medium, and more particularly to a recording apparatus capable of being selectively operated in a line recording mode for performing recording on the first recording medium by using a recording head fixed while feeding the first recording medium and in a serial recording mode for performing recording on the second recording medium by making the recording head scan the second recording medium.
2. Description of Related Art
The applicant has proposed a recording device for producing label tape disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,232,297. The device is provided with a keyboard, a display, and a recording mechanism of a thermal recording type. In such a device, the thermal head prints characters and marks of an input text on a recording tape through an ink ribbon to make a label affixable to a spine of a file and the like.
The label made of the recording tape has a width, for example, 6 mm, 9 mm, 12 mm, 18 mm, and 24 mm, and can be printed thereon images such as characters and marks with various sizes and fonts in correspondence with the width of the label tape. The above label tape has been recently used not only for the spine of a file but also information boards, price cards and others. The label tape is accordingly desired to have a wider width than the above widths and to be usable for a color printing.
The above device is operated in a line recording mode for performing recording by fixing a recording head while feeding a recording tape. This device thus needs recording heads having larger widths corresponding to the width of a label tape to be printed, resulting in high cost.
Another recording device has conventionally been proposed as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 7-117297, which can be operated in a line recording mode for performing recording on a recording sheet by using a fixedly supported recording head and in a serial recording mode for performing recording by making the recording head scan the recording sheet. In this recording device, the recording head performs recording on a small-width sheet in the line recording mode and, alternatively, on a larger-width sheet in the serial recording mode by being rotated by an angle of 90.degree. to scan the recording sheet in an orthogonal direction with respect to the feeding direction of the sheet. The rotational mechanism of the recording head may cause a large-sized device and an increased the manufacturing cost thereof.
Meanwhile, a recording apparatus is conventionally provided with a recording head, a platen for supporting recording paper which is fed with respect to the recording head, and a cutting unit disposed in a downstream side of the platen, for cutting the recording paper. In such the recording apparatus, upon completion of recording using the recording head on the recording paper, this paper is fed toward the cutting unit and is cut by the cutting unit.
When the cutting unit is driven to cut the recording paper, however, a cutter and the like of the cutting unit tends to pull the recording paper, which may generate backlash in a gear train used as a feeding mechanism for feeding the recording paper. Accordingly, when the apparatus drives the cutting unit to cut the recording paper after recording and successively drives the recording head to perform recording again on the recording paper, there may occur so-called white lines between recorded portions before and after a cutting operation and extreme overlap of the recorded portions.